30,000 Golden Dawn Supporters March in Athens Under Neo-Nazi Banners

Tens of thousands of black-clad neo-Nazis have rallied in Athens in support of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party, in the movement's biggest show of support since it emerged from obscurity to win 7 percent of the vote in last June's general election.

"We're nationalists. We're patriots. And if these guys who ruled the country for decades had a fibre of the nationalism we're running on, they would have never brought the country to its current predicament."

The vigilante far-right movement has begun spreading its anti-immigration message in schools and youth clubs, and through online social media networks, according to recent reports in the international press.

Its trademark campaigns of violence and intimidation now appear to be spreading to the playground, with nationalist graffiti, slogans and swastika emblems beginning to appear around schools.

More than 5,000 supporters of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party have marched to commemorate a 1996 military crisis which cost the lives of three navy officers and brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of war.

During the rally, protesters chanted anti-Turkish, anti-US and anti-immigrant slogans while carrying torches and Greek flags.

Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos addressed the crowd of nationalist supporters, speaking about what became known as the "Imia incident ”.